Kidnapped girl returned after 500-mile ordeal

Published: Monday, September 02, 2002

Associated Press

PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla. (AP)  Investigators were on the way to Orange, Texas, on Sunday to pick up a 16-year-old girl who was snatched from her home by a man who has evaded authorities in three states, officials said.

The girl was in the custody of Child Protective Service workers in Orange on Sunday, a day after she was abducted from this north Florida town about 485 miles away, authorities said.

Ernie Paul Dugas, 30, is charged with kidnapping and a warrant has been issued for his arrest. Authorities in Florida, Texas and Louisiana were searching for Dugas, who once lived in Rayne, La., said criminal investigator David Baldwin of the Bay County Sheriff's Office.

Baldwin said he and a deputy were driving to Texas to pick up the girl and bring her home. Baldwin said the girl was not injured in the 14-hour ordeal, but said "there has been some sexual battery."

"She's been through a heck of an ordeal and we're going to keep her safe," Baldwin said Sunday in an interview on his cellular phone.

The Associated Press is withholding the girl's name because of the alleged sexual battery.

The teen was abducted Saturday morning when she answered the door at her home. The stranger grabbed the girl and forced her into his car, police said.

He allowed her to use his cell phone while they were at a rest stop, shortly after they had crossed the border from Louisiana into Texas, police said.